First, a question about the format of these posts: do you prefer patterns to be loosely tossed together (like I did for the first three posts), or should I save patterns up until I can post them in larger groups (like I’ve done this week and last)?

If you are knitting or have already knit a pattern that I’m talking about, leave me a comment and I’ll update my post with a link to your version. If you’ve written up a pattern and you want me to link to it, send me an email or leave me a comment and I’ll post it! It makes the list longer and my job easier.

This Saturday, Pattern Day is a more sombre one than most. Famed knitter Annie Modesitt’s husband has been diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a type of blood cancer. She’s offering a pattern for download, “Red Carpet Convertible,” and accepting donations of $4.50 + whatever extra you’d be willing to give. The proceeds from the pattern will pay for travel costs, daycare, etc. while her husband is at the clinic where he’s receiving his stem cell transplant. It’s a beautiful pattern, and certainly worth at least $4.50. Emphasis on at least!

• Babies!
• Tetris Baby Blanket
• Child’s Cowboy Hat. Example here.
• An example of a Quickie Baby Sweater is here.
• For baby sports fans, knit an England Football Jumper.
• Saartje’s booties are all over the blogosphere here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here (plus 50%). Love!
• Here’s a baby jacket and socks from DROPS Design, with a finished example here and one in progress here.
• Bags



• I’m likin’ this Felted laptop sleeve with apples on it. I’d knit one in rainbow colours, because for some reason I’m getting really nostalgic for the times when Apple was full of geeks and the Macintosh was the next big thing and everything was beige and Steve Jobs had been fired. Stupid Steve Jobs. I hope they bring back the old logo at some point to surprise everyone.
• I love the Intricate Stag Bag (PDF here), one of the bonus free web projects from the new issue of Knitscene. I feel like I should take it out on the hunt. Not that I ever do much hunting, of course… Small varmints, mostly.

No one was home yesterday to take pictures of me with my newly-finished Dashing mitts, so instead you get this.

Via [BB-Blog].

• Phildar is having a yarn sale! (UPDATE: OMG their catalogues are half price now!)
• There’s also a sale at Pureknits.
• KnitPicks released a new sock yarn called Risata, a wool/cotton/other blend.
• This is my dream trip in October. I’d like to go to Rhinebeck, if I have that weekend free. I don’t think it will be possible, but I’d like to go back to where I grew up if I’m going to be in the neighbourhood. And hey, since I’m there, WEBS WEBS WEBS. Anyone else going to Rhinebeck?

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/jtzdxseO-gs" height="350" width="425" /]

This is kind of inspiring. Not only because so much neat stuff was produced in just a week, but because the neat stuff was painted right on top of everything else. If I had produced some of these things, I would never ever ever paint over it! I’m squirming as we speak! And by speak, I mean blog.

Maybe the moral of this story is that we shouldn’t be so romantic about our work, treating it like it’s sacred. When I received my sweetgeorgia yarn* for example, it was so expensive that I was afraid of dropping it on the ground. But hey, come on Eve, you’re going to be wearing this stuff! It’s not like you’re going to float above the floor when you’re walking around in your socks. These clothes are meant to be worn, and when they become unfashionable or old, they’re meant to be reknit or packed away or *shudder* thrown out.

So no more. From now on, no yarn is sacred! Like smashing champagne against the hull of a ship before it takes to the sea, each of my projects will touch the floor at least once before being knit. Smash! Smash again! Floor-touch!

* namedrop!

I got an email a few days ago from one Darius Monsef. If that name sounds familiar, you are probably a COLOURlover. COLOURlovers is a site for… well, people who love colour. It’s a great resource for folks who need colour scheme ideas or in my case, folks who are bored because their web design projects are finished and they’re waiting for a particular Lieutenant or Major to call them back (yay cushy civilian job for the military), so they just sit around rating palettes and playing with RGB values in photoshop.

I’ve been a member of this site for about 2 years now, but I must admit that I never made the connection between the benefits of such a site and how they could be applied to knitting. Fortunately, Darius made that connection for me, with a little bit of prodding from his knitter mother. If you’re a DIY dyer or a fair-isle freak, this site could be invaluable for coming up with new colour combinations.

Now what would be a really cool idea would be a little application that loads in palettes from COLOURlovers and finds matches to particular yarns. I’ll add that to the ever-increasing list of neat web-application ideas that I will never have time to write. For now, take a look at the site itself and bask in its time-sink possibilities. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Fleegle’s Blog has a post about Japanese Knitting Symbols that’s quite interesting. She explains how such complicated cable representations as the following make any sense whatsoever.

Ah yes, I recognize this cable, although I was taught a slightly different version.

Read the rest »

If you abbreviate a left-leaning cable as C4F and a right-leaning cable as C4B, how do you abbreviate a cable where you hold the first 2 stitches to the back and then purl them instead of knitting them? Do you call it a slant instead of a cable? I’m not sure what the standard is.

Here’s a quick preview of something I’m working on right now. I’ll talk about it soon.

If you are knitting or have already knit a pattern that I’m talking about, leave me a comment and I’ll update my post with a link to your version. If you’ve written up a pattern and you want me to link to it, send me an email or leave me a comment and I’ll post it! It makes the list longer and my job easier. Here are this week’s patterns. The theme is animals and wacky things.

• Animals
• I’m so excited about this one!! Remember the little crocheted dragon in this post? It didn’t have a pattern when I last checked, but then commenter Katrina emailed me about it and it turns out that the creator has recently published it! I hope you enjoy this pattern for a slightly fierce but friendly Dragon as much as I will.
• I’ve seen Berroco’s Harry Bear before, but it didn’t strike me how adorable the pattern was until a version showed up on Kathryn Ivy. All together, now: Awwwwwww! (Another example is here.)
• He’s sort of an animal: Wicket the Ewok!
• Bob is a blobby thing and free to knit.
• Wacky things
• These leaf ornaments are knit with a strand of mohair and a strand of wire held together. Endlessly customizable.
• Pac-Man and ghost!
• Mmmmm, delicious baby hearts! * Shlurp *

If you have a tree in your garden that can stand the loss of a branch, try making some wooden buttons. There’s a nice step-by-step at Pikku-Kettu Knits, and examples of the neat ways you can make buttons are at Sisäinen villapaita. I don’t speak Finnish, but if you do, there might be some great tips over there. I have no idea what it says, so I apologize if it’s a tutorial on how to poison vagrants by coating your buttons in cyanide. I do not endorse coating buttons with cyanide.

Here’s what it says over here about making buttons:

You will need a piece of dowel [Ed: or a branch!] 1 inch (3 centimeters) in diameter. Place the dowel between pieces of cardboard to shield it, and put it in a bench clamp or vice. Father [Ed: lol are you also picturing him in a sweater vest and horn-rimmed glasses?] can drill two or three holes into the end of the dowel. Center them so you can use them for the holes in the buttons. If you don’t have a drill with a bit, make holes by twisting an awl or leather punch into the wood.

Use a hand jigsaw to saw off rounds of the dowel to the thickness you desire for a button. If you have a triangular file, you can file a design in the top of each button. Make four or five similar buttons so you can use them for a set.

Use a fine sandpaper to smooth off the rough parts. You can stain, paint, or wax the buttons to the desired finish.

These instructions are especially useful for people making a multitude of buttons, because you only have to drill holes once. If you’re planning on countersinking your buttons with a special drill bit (this reduces thread wear), you’ll obviously have to do them individually. Alternatively, you could do them all at once with a thin bit and then once they have been cut into individual buttons, use a larger bit to drill out each hole by no more than a millimetre or so.

Branch-stealing ideas:

• I’m going to ask the parents if I can steal a branch or two when I get back home.
• There was a huge storm in Toronto when I was there a week ago, so I might sneak into the forest on the edge of Kingston to see if it took out a few branches over here.
• I don’t know much about pruning, but if you need to prune your trees, that’s an easy route to getting a branch or two.
• If you want to steal some branches from the neighbours after they’ve done some gardening, it’s probably best to ask them permission first. That also gives them an opening to tell you about any diseases or parasites that could be clinging to the branches. That way, you don’t have to worry about getting dutch elm disease from your cardigan.

This yarn is called Benjamin Franklin because it’s a dark green colour with a hint of gold in it, which makes me think of money. It’s all about the Benjamins.

Stats!

Fibre content: 60% cotton, 20% wool, 20% nylon. I think the nylon is only at the cuffs (which I threw out), so it might actually be closer to 75% cotton, 25% wool.
Care instructions: Dry clean only, apparently, but with it being mostly cotton I’ll settle for hand-wash cold.
Purchased at: Value Village
Price: $10
Weight: ~400 grams or 1lb
Plans for the yarn: I have no idea yet. It could be good for fall, as it’s part wool but mostly cotton. Usually the plies lose their twist when I rip cotton, but due to the wool content they are sticking together and maintaining the twist which I mucho appreciate. There’s enough here for a sweater, so maybe this could become a green gable.